Posted 5 years ago on Nov. 28, 2011, 5:09 p.m. EST by TLydon007
(1278)
This content is user submitted and not an official statement

In order,

Get lobbying money out of politics.

-or at least impose reasonable limitations on it

-or at least abolish corporate personhood via amendment to the constitution so corporations can no longer invest in legislation rather than the future

-if someone replies that liberal politicians also receive money or that some receive more money, simply reply, "Great, so we can count on your support for a democracy where neither political party can be paid off. And if you don't support it, WHY??"

Repeal Gramm-Leach-Bliley(1999) and reinstate Glass-Steagall(1933)

-we need to return to a time (1933-1999) when banks were separated into 3 functions (Investment, Savings and Loans, Insurance Company) and could not merge into mega-banks that are "too big to fail". Without it, the conflicts of interest within these mega-banks have caused 1 depression and 1 near-depression. These banks have used taxpayer bailout money to lobby congress to resist any meaningful change that will prevent a financial crisis in the future and that must change.

Tell them that if they oppose what the nearest occupation is doing, they are welcome to go to the General Assemblies being held every evening and voice dissent. Nobody is deprived of a voice at these forums and the only reason not to voice your concerns is that YOU don't feel your voice is worth hearing.

6 Comments

To affect Real and DRAMATIC change we must eventually take over the levers of political power by putting together a slate of candidates that are honest people drawn from the occupy movement's ranks and elect a lot of them to Congress.

The first order of business is to take big money out of federal politics.

Pass the Fair Elections Now Act (S. 750 and H.R. 1404). A law where political candidates for federal office would raise a large number of small contributions from their communities in order to qualify for Fair Elections funding. Contributions are limited to $100.00. Strictly voluntary by the candidate to avoid legal issues.

Require new FCC regulations granting 100% FREE TV air time to all federal candidates who obtain sufficient petition signatures and/or votes to get on the ballot and participate in the primaries and/or electoral process.

End Political Corruption - End the "revolving door" of politicians and their staffs from ever becoming becoming lobbyists and prohibit all federal public employees, officers, officials from ever being employed by any corporation, individual or business that they specifically regulated while in office.

Clean Up Wall St. - Break up the biggest banks. Reenact Glass-Steagall. Abolish credit default swaps. Derivatives must be traded on transparent exchanges. Ban "flash" trading. Tax all Wall St. financial transactions at 1%. Damp down speculation and raise $400 billion a year.

Create Jobs - A ten-year federal program that involves a New Works Progress Administration (WPA) and Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) to create millions of jobs rebuilding America that includes infrastructure banks run by engineers, not politicians to extricate ourselves from the Great Recession now and increase productivity later.

Create A Fair Federal Tax Code - The marginal tax rate ought to be raised to 50 percent on income between $500,000 and $5 million, 60 percent on income between $5 million and $15 million, and 70 percent on income over $15 million. There should be a 2 percent annual surtax on all fortunes over $7 million. The estate tax should be 55 percent and kicks in after $5 million. Capital gains should be taxed at 35 percent. End the home mortgage deduction on first homes over $1 million. End the home mortgage deduction on all second homes. Corporations should be taxed by a variable amount based on the percentage of their payroll going to US workers. A small business employing 100% US workers should be taxed somewhere between 15-20% while a company that has completely shifted its production overseas should be in the 50% range. Eliminate corporate loopholes, unfair tax breaks, exemptions and deductions, subsidies, end offshore tax haven abuse. Expatriation of capital should be subject to a maximum tax-rate penalty with violation considered a felony act.

Invest In Education - Begin with the federal government paying tuition and fees for all students, part and full time, who are enrolled in two-year public institutions in the United States.

Make Health Care Affordable And Accessible To All - Medicare For All. Allow Medicare to purchase drugs directly. Give the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MEDPAC) more authority to drive down medical costs. End fee-for-service in medical care.

I have had similar experiences. The establishment is doing a good job branding the protests as a bunch of directionless hippies, as evidenced by the initial reaction I get from some of my coworkers when the subject of OWS comes up. What is funny is most of them readily agree with some of the main ideas of the protests - the biggest being reducing the amount of influence corporations and special interests have in our political process. Once this comes out you can see a change come over them.